


Intricacies of Mining Exports of Whitestone, Or Bedtime

by LadyOfSnakes



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/M, Kidfic, let perc'ahlia be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:48:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8641174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOfSnakes/pseuds/LadyOfSnakes
Summary: Written for the critrole reverse bang. Art by ryanismynamee.
A short scene with Vex, Percy, and their baby girl.





	

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
> Art by Ryanismynamee!

One day, Vex had woken up in Whitestone and realized it was _home_. She’d felt that way before, in Byroden, and later in Greyskull Keep. Those were places she had thought, “This is home because this is where my family is.” Whitestone was different. She had walked into a sad, scared city and her heart had never left. Though a good portion of her family--Velora, Kima and Allura, the rest of Vox Machina--was scattered across the continents now, she thought “My family is here because this is home.”

Vex signed a final letter and sealed it with the de Rolo crest. The sun had sunk low, now leaving only a smudge of orange above the Alabaster Sierras to the west. Her window in her study overlooked the western courtyard of the castle, and the thick forest outside the wall was already dark. All afternoon she had been working on correspondence, stopping only when it was time to feed Ellie. Now all her letters were finished with, and it was time for her to return to her other jobs.

Being a Baroness of Whitestone didn’t inherently come with much to do. However, in the year following the fall of the Chroma Conclave, Vex had thrown herself into politics anyway. (Cassandra said she was grateful for the assistance.) Even once the rebuilding of Emon had started, several refugee families had decided to stay, and they needed assistance with getting settled. Then there was negotiating and renegotiating trade deals. Whitestone hadn’t been able to get back on its feet after the Briarwoods, and then the conclave had destroyed any hopes of trade for a while after. Soon, she’d been appointed to the council officially.

It had been so satisfying seeing the delegation from Syngorn. Syldor’s stern features had betrayed his surprise, dismay, and a little bit of pride at seeing his daughter in charge of the Whitestone negotiators.

She stood up and stretched, loosening kinks she hadn’t noticed forming in her shoulders. Perhaps tomorrow morning she’d take Trinket out for a proper hunt. The bear, his muzzle now almost as white as Percy’s hair, had taken to lazily sleeping in the courtyard most days. The storerooms in the castle were not quite filled yet for winter, and she was sure the orphanage in town could use some fresh meat as well. (And Ellie did like going to visit the orphanage; the bigger girls always spoiled her with coos and cuddling.)

After turning down the oil lamp on her desk, Vex left her office. Cassandra had given her and Percival a good portion of the castle for their own, so every step she took was technically within _her_ home, not just Cass’s. One of the servants she passed bowed slightly to her and said, “Lady Vex’ahlia, Lord Percival has requested your supper be brought upstairs. It should be ready soon.”

“Thank you, Alma.” Vex responded. She made a point of knowing all the servants who worked for them. In a different life, she may have grown up to be a maid herself. “Can you please bring up some tea first? I’m a little parched.”

“There’s already some in your room, my lady. Lord Percival requested that as well, and I’ve just dropped it off.”

“Wonderful. Thank you, dear.” Vex smiled and nodded, then headed to their bedroom. From the hall, he could hear a gentle tinkling melody coming out of Ellie’s room. Percy was in there, she was sure. She passed it first though, and went into their room instead. The teapot was sitting on their table, steaming, and she poured herself a cup. Her fingers warmed through the china, and Vex took a deep breath of the steam before wandering out into the hall again.

Music still played in Ellie’s room, a gentle lullaby. Before their daughter was born, Percy had spent weeks down in his workshop, putting together the clockwork mobile. It was like a music box; someone wound it up and then it played music as the delicate stars spun slowly. He’d been so proud to show it to Vex once it had been completed. The intricate gears and music mechanism tucked away into the small housing of the mobile, so that when Ellie was big enough to stand and touch it, it would still be protected.

Vex picked up her pace when she heard a wail coming from their daughter’s room. Ellie was still just a baby, and cried at just about everything. It was almost her last feeding time before bed as well, and she was probably fussy, hungry, and tired. At the door to the room, Vex stopped. Her husband had everything under control.

It was obvious Percy had been sketching in Ellie’s room. He’d taken to sitting in the nursery with her, with her either bundled up on his lap or playing with her soft toys on the floor. Sometimes that meant their daughter had ink on her clothes, or Percy’s papers had drool on them, and Vex found it all very sweet.

At the moment though, his papers were abandoned on the table, and he was pacing around the room with a crying baby in his arms. Vex waited in the doorway and sipped at her tea, watching Percy take care of their little girl. (He’d been so worried when she’d finally become pregnant; worried that he’d be a poor father, worried he wouldn’t know how to care for her, worried that whatever part of him that was still broken would ruin the life they were bringing to the world. She’d had her own fears, but had mostly tried to comfort him. Once Ellie had been born, he’d proven to be a natural.)

“It’s okay, Little One. Papa’s here.” Percy’s voice was soft and low. His glasses perched on top of his head, out of Ellie’s reach. Her tiny fingers grabbed his collar instead, and she pressed her face against his neck. She took a deep, shuddering breath and her sobs faded into hiccups. “There’s a good girl, Ellie. Your mother’s going to come in soon, you’ll have your supper, and we’ll all say goodnight.”

He turned his head and pressed a kiss into their daughter’s downy hair. (It was brown, but so thin it looked gold in the candlelight. Vex was hoping for Ellie’s sake it would stay thin; she had far too many memories from her own childhood of being forced to sit still as her mother worked every tangle out of her thick hair.) Percy rubbed Ellie’s back and gently rocked where he stood. Their baby girl calmed and peeked up at his face, then burbled something. Any day now she’d be saying her first words, but at the moment it was just a muddle of noise.

“Oh really, Ellie? That is very interesting.” Percy said, nodding seriously. “And how do you think that will affect our other mining exports?”

Ellie babbled again and rested her face against her father’s shirt, smearing drool on the clean linen.

“That is true. Kraghammer has a firm hold on the mithril and other metals market at the moment, but the Greyspines are not totally unreasonable. And I believe they owe us a favor. We’ll have to check with your Mama though. She knows more about this than I do.” At the mention of the word Mama, Ellie perked up again, her eyes going wide. “We’ll need to consult her on your theory, Little One. Mama is the clever one in our family.”

The little girl cooed and tugged at his collar. Maybe it was all these years of him talking one-sidedly to Trinket, but Percy was very good at carrying on a conversation with creatures not capable of common speech. “So you’re saying if we continue to work on the refinement process for residuum, we could leverage that in the trade negotiations with Ank’harel? That’s remarkably similar to what Archie recommended at the last council meeting. Have you been discussing it with him? He didn’t give you any credit for the idea.”

She smiled up at Percy, then her eyes refocused past his shoulder and spotted Vex in the doorway. Ellie giggled and bounced in her father’s arms. “Mama!”

Percy lifted her up higher, worry in his voice. “Oh no, Little One. Please don’t tell me your first word was Mama and Vex missed it.”

“Mama!” Ellie said again, and waved at Vex.

“I didn’t miss anything, darling.” Vex said, and finally walked into the room. Percy turned to look at her and smiled widely. When she reached her arms out, he passed their daughter over to her, then leaned down and kissed the top of her head.

“You can talk to your Papa all you want about mining exports, Ellie, but no one is ever going to forget that you said _my_ name first! I’m going to tell your uncles and aunts about it so they know you love me best.” Vex leaned against Percy and pulled Ellie into a warm hug. 

As much as she enjoyed teasing her husband--and she did--she couldn’t wait for their baby girl to start saying his name too. She had never been the girl who romanticized being a mother or a wife. She had wanted to be a hunter, an adventurer, an influential woman who didn’t care what anyone thought about her. Her own mother had been a kind, hard-working woman who had struggled to raise her children alone. Vex had never wanted to be like that. But now, as she held her daughter in her arms and Percy wrapped his arms around them both, she really understood why Elaina had willingly given up so much.

Percy laughed quietly and kissed the top of Vex’s head again. “Everyone loves you best, Vex. Even Cass does. You’re wonderful. But maybe...”

“Maybe what, Percival?” Vex grinned up at him, then walked over to the rocking chair in the corner of the room. She unbuttoned the top of her dress, then held Ellie up to let her feed.

“Maybe we could have another?” Percy blushed a little as he suggested it, though he was still smiling. He spoke as if he’d put quite a bit of thought into it. “We don’t have to be like my parents, but could you imagine your life without your brother? Ellie could have a little brother or sister to play with.”

Vex nodded, but didn’t respond right away. Growing up in Byroden had been hard, and Syngorn even harder. Percy was right, she _couldn’t_ imagine her early life without Vax in it. Even now she missed him. He’d been away in Vasselheim for months, since a little after the midsummer festival. Every few weeks there would be a letter from him, and she didn’t want to think of what it would mean if those letters stopped.

Ellie though, wasn’t going to struggle in the same ways she had. The de Rolo family wanted for nothing, and the humans of Whitestone had embraced their elf-blooded baroness, particularly after word got around that she had the killing blow on the white dragon that had flown over the city a few years earlier. Still, Vex thought her daughter would be missing something if she grew up alone. “I think one or two more would be a good idea. Ellie’s going to be bigger than Scanlan soon, and you know how he likes to fuss over babies.”

Leaning over, Percy gently ran his hand through Vex’s hair. (He’d found a single grey hair that way a few days ago, and had fixed her with a stern look when she’d been upset over it.) “That settles it then. Uncle Scanlan needs another Little One to spoil, and since I don’t think Kaylee will be having children for a while yet, it’s up to us.”

“We can’t let our bard down, now can we?” Vex leaned into her husband’s touch. She could imagine Ellie--slightly bigger than now--chasing a little brother down one of the many stone halls of the castle. She could take a little sister out to the gardens to visit Trinket and climb up the lazy mountain of fur. “I think we should get started tonight.”

Percy laughed and quietly shushed her. “Don’t say things like that in front of the baby.”

“She’s not a baby. She’s a big girl who said Mama today.” Vex smiled and pressed another kiss to her daughter’s soft hair.

This was not the life she had expected for herself. Not in Byroden, not in Syngorn, not even in Greyskull Keep. But as Percy got up to wind up Ellie’s mobile so it could play her to sleep, Vex was content.


End file.
